Dec. 19 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
488 
HUNTING IN GREENLAND. 
I SUPPOSE when I tell my reader that the deer hunt I 
am going to describe was not crowned with success, and 
that our efforts were useless, he will drop this article with 
disgust and look for something more ideal. But this par- 
ticular hunt was so unique in a way off there in Green- 
land, so surrounded by peculiar conditions, that I think it 
will not fail to be of some interest, especially to him who 
has the true sporting instinct, and appreciates as only the 
hunter can the hardships and trials of the chase. 
Again I want my reader to understand that he is not 
reading fiction, but a true account of actual adventure 
that four of us went through last summer. Were it fic- 
tion it would not have had such a miserable ending, and 
our party would have returned to camp with all the meat 
and heads they could carry. 
The great Nugauak Peninsula is a body of land situated 
on the west coast of Greenland, well up in the latitude of 
71°, It is some hundred miles long and fifty wide, and 
extends from the great inland ice in a northwesterly 
direction to Baffin's Bay. The interior of this peninsula 
is but little known, and as far as I could ascertain from 
the Danes living in that locality we were the only white 
men who had gone over the ground. Bounded on three 
sides by fiords five to ten mUes wide, laden with icebergs, 
and on the fourth by the impenetrable ice sheet, it rises 
abruptly to an average elevation of 4,000ft., where there 
extends a fipld of perpf^tual snow f orcine itself out between 
the mountain peaks and down their sides in the form of 
glaciers. And such was the general character of the 
country in which we hunted deer. 
We, that is John Phillips, myself and two Eskimos, 
Thui and Johnathan by name, made the party, Phillips 
was a tall, slender fellow, not yet of age, but strong, and 
with a grit and persistence that made him an admirable 
companion on such a trip. The two natives were wee 
bit of men picked up at the settlements as the best hunters, 
and as knowing a little of the country through which we 
were going. They were dark, dirty fellows barely 5ft. 
high, but could carry a pack on their backs, supported 
by straps across the forehead, for miles across the worst 
kind of going, and apparently enjoy it. 
Oar departure was made from the mouth of a salmon 
river, Ekaluit, on the north side of the peninsula, where 
our Boston party of students and professors had pitched 
the big tent. Provisions were taken for just four days, 
that being the time allowed us by the head of the party, 
and consisted solely of baked beans, biscuit and coffee, 
and a liberal allowance of black tobacco for the two 
guides. We wore the Eskimo coat of sealskin — "natsek," 
as it is called — woollen trousers and the "kamiks," or skin 
boots, for footwear, Thui absolutely forbade our taking 
walking boots on account of the noise they made with the 
hobnails on the rocks. Their loss was sadly felt before 
we got back, for the skin boots offered no resistence to the 
rough ground, every little piece of rock making itself felt 
through the thin soles. 
At 4 o'clock on the morning of that latter day in Au- 
gust Thui stuck his head in the tent and said it was good 
to go, and after a hot breakfast and a careful examination 
of our traveling gear we were off, making our way 
through the lowlands and following up the valley through 
which Ekaluit River made its way. The valley was per- 
haps a mile wide, covered with the low blueberry and 
cowberry bush and dwarf willows, the whole flanked by 
two chains of mountains rising to the ice cap. The sides 
of the mountains were bare of vegetation, as were the 
huge banks of talus running from the cliffs far out into 
the valley, and the rock was invariably gneiss. For per- 
haps three hours we kept 'up this valley, which ran in a 
southeasterly direction, and found the walking pretty fair, 
the best we were destined to have on the trip. At each 
stop, which was always just before reaching the crest of 
some elevation, Thui unslung his pack, got out a small 
telescope and carefully scanned the outlook ahead for 
signs of game. 
Presently the Eskimos turned off abruptly to the right 
and began the ascent of the cliffs, which here, along the 
side of a waterfall from the snow above somewhere, 
afforded us sufficient footing. It was hard climbine, but 
frequently looking back we could see how rapidly we 
were getting up, and soon we reached the top and found 
ourselves on the edge of a slightly rising table-land, with 
patches of snow ahead and the ice rising and disappearing 
on both sides. We were evidently on a divide and the 
stream we had ascended drained it. Here we stopped to 
take our lunch of biscuit. 
Traveling now was over rock that seemed to have been 
broken up by frost action. Huge slabs were detached 
from the ledge and splintered into sharp, angular blocks 
which had not yet had time to weather. Small fields of 
snow were crossed, joining the ice fields on both sides of 
us, and soon we found ourselves on a slight descent, but 
had not made over a mile or two when we came to a 
halt on the edge of enormous cliffs overlooking a wonder- 
ful and surpassingly beautiful scene. Below us perhaps 
3,000ft., and at right angles to the direction we had been 
coming, lay a lake some ten miles long and one and a 
half wide, of a light chocolate color. It was hemmed in 
on three sides by a ragged buttress of rock rising to the 
height that we now were, through which came at almost 
uniform distances a number of blue glaciers, shimmering 
in the sunlight and distributing tiny delta streams to the 
lake. From the water's edge lowlands, rich with blue- 
berry bushes and moss, undulated to the mountain sides, 
where they met the talus. Down came the glaciers from 
the edge of the ice cap, some of them running far out 
over the lowlands and surrounded by moraines as fresh 
and gray as though they had been made that day. At 
the lower end of the lake the valley turned abruptly to 
the left, hiding the outlet from our view. It was in this 
arena then that we made our dpscent and chose for our 
scene of action the next three days; 
Along about halfway dow^n, after we had got into the 
belt of vegetation again, Thui suddenly stopped, stooped 
over and quietly remarked that we would get "tuktuk" 
(deer) very soon. This was good news. There were the 
comparatively fresh tracks of the caribou and it was tol- 
erably certain they could not be many miles away. The 
natives had told us that "innuit" (people from the north) 
had frightened all big game away from this part of the 
peninsula and the chances would be against our finding 
game here, but now our spirits came up with the thought 
of deer so near us, and we hastened on down the moun- 
tain side and on to the lowlands, where we turned to the 
right. 
The walking was now much like that which we had at 
first, only we were obliged to be continually going over 
great piles of morainic boulders. The water we found to 
be laden with glacial silt, a mud froni the surface of the 
ice and too fine to settle quickly. There were small 
pieces of ice floating about here and there from one or 
two glaciers which had succeeded in reaching the water's 
edge. 
Camp that first night was made under the shelter of a 
tremendous boulder 60ft. long and 20 thick, and tilted so 
as to leave a large space underneath, where we built our 
fire and turned in for the night. The meal consisted of a 
can of Boston baked beans, we spreading the contents of 
the can over a rock, where we all helped ourselves. The 
natives then prepared a fire with a certain green, pitchy 
vine similar to.the cowberry bush, and proceeded to make 
the coffee. Taking the raw kernels, they spread them 
over a piece of thin rock and placed it over the fire until 
the coffee was roasted black. Then grinding it between 
two stones, the empty bean can was brought into play; it 
was filled with water, the coffee added and heated to 
boiling. The result was a black, strong, rich drink, 
which I found to be just what I wanted to stay my 
nerves. 
"Turning in" simply meant going to sleep with us, for 
we had no tent, sleeping bags or extra clothing, but just 
as we were trying to find a smooth place to lie on Thui 
beckoned to us to come over where he was. He was 
sprawled out Hat on the rocks with his eye to the tele- 
scope, intently taking in the slopes on the further side of 
the lake. 
"Tuktuk, tuktuk!" he exclaimed, in his native tongue, 
almost as excited as we were when we heard it, "Two, 
old man, little child." But look as hard as we would we 
could not make them out. Thui said they were sleeping, 
and at that distance, some two miles away, no wonder 
thev were invisible to our inexperienced eyes. 
We took his word, however, that they were there, 
Johnathan confirming Thui's statement, and you have no 
idea what spirit this news put into us. Next morning 
we were up and after a hasty meal started off down the 
lake with the intention of rounding it and coming up the 
other side. 
We scared up a few ptarmigan and two arctic hares 
that day, but they were only given a passing glance. 
How I wish, now that I'know how our trip turned out, 
that I had bagged those two white skins. At noon we 
reached the foot of the lake, and crossing a large delta 
flat, spreading out from a glacier surrounded by a Titan 
dam of terminal and lateral moraines several hundred 
feet high, turned to the left at right angles to our former 
path and found another lake, smaller than the first, about 
three miles in length, spreading- out before us. This lake 
was surrounded in the same way as its neighbor by exten- 
sive lowlands and hemmed in by the cliffs, and at its fur- 
ther end could be sepn a river flowing out of it to the 
west and disappearing behind a chain of mountains. 
Evidently this was our only place to cross and a bee line 
was made for it. 
Bat there is no country in which distances are so de- 
ceiving as Greenland; thpre is nothing in the landscape to 
give it scale and allow the spectator an idea of how far 
off an object may be. Nothing but rocks and boulders 
which vary in all sizes up to that of a large house. 
So we found ourselves at dusk still two miles from the 
river and sought the protection of some friendly rocks for 
the night. Before turning in the natives discovered two 
more deer through the telescope just across the small 
lake. These John and I easily made out. They were a 
doe and a fawn this time and they were browsing among 
the piles of talus on the reindeer moss. Their fall coat 
was gray and an exact copy in color of the carpet of moss 
and willow over which they were slowly moving. 
This sight, together with a liberal dose of the black 
coffee, put us in good condition for the night, and we 
smoked our pipes with a satisfaction and assurance that 
the morrow would bring us to our quarry, and I crawled 
in out of sight under a stone as big as a hut without 
noticing the bank of clouds collecting over the mountain 
tops to the east. 
At 3:30 in the morning I awoke, for the first time cold. 
I crawled out of my den. There was a half snow, half 
rain, falling, and a heavy fog was slowly advancing up 
the valley. I called to John and the natives roosting 
among the rocks, and after some time managed to get a 
fire for our coffee from a few dry vines collected under 
shelving stones. At 7 we were off down the valley along 
the bfise of another lateral moraine, and after crossing 
several streams from the glacier reached the shore of the 
river at 9 o'clock. 
The stream at this point was some thousand feet wide, 
but with the exception of its middle, where the greater 
current ran, it was not deep, many boulders and ledges 
protruding above water. The gradient was very marked, 
the whole river sliding: along down hill to meet another 
lake, probably greater than any we had yet seen and 
whose head was just visible under the fog. We could see 
out in the middle of the stream, by bits of ice on the sur- 
face, that there was a rapid fall at this place, but it was 
all too apparent by the slope of the divide at this point. 
We sat down and took off our socks and sealskin pants, 
keeping on the boots for protection against the rocks, and 
with Thui ahead with a stick, which I still believe he 
brought all the way for this purpose, that is, to feel his 
way, we started in. The water was cold, cruelly cold, 
and could not have been far from the freezing peint 
judging from the feeling and the pieces of ice it con- 
tained. After getting out some distance Thui and Johna- 
than turned to the left and started up stream, John and I 
meekly following, dragging our benumbed limbs after us. 
We were above our knees now and getting near mid- 
stream. Here the natives, after poking about for awhile, 
gave US to understand, by plunging the stick under water 
and then placing it against their sides, thus showing the 
depth of water, that it was too much for them and that 
they were going to try it again further up stream. So 
back we went to shore and trudged up a few hundred 
yards. This time we reached the deep water about three- 
quarters of the way across. 
Up to this time I had kept my temper pretty well under 
control, thinking that we were doing the best under the 
circumstances and that the natives knew their business 
better than we; but when I saw them stop probing after 
sunken stepping stones, deliberately s:et out their pipes, 
light them and enter into a lengthy discussion as to the 
comparative merits of crossing above or below or of ford- 
ing at all, this in ice water up to our knees, I must con- 
fess that I let loose the vials of my wrath on thope poor 
f'^llows' heads and sent them to a warmer place than 
Greenland. They took it humbly enough and simply 
said it was too deep for them and began to make for the 
shore. 
This was too much for me. With a call to John to fol- 
low, which he had the common sense to ignore. I took 
my rifle in my hand and waded out into the current, and 
was soon up to my hips slipping on and off the stones on 
the bottom, which seemed to be covered with some kind 
or slime. 
Somphow or other I got across right side up and with a 
dry Winchester, and sitting down I took off what gar- 
ments were wet and proceeded to wring them out. Look- 
ing back, I saw John and the two natives disappearing 
down stream, and I knew they were going to try it again 
there. I got into my wet clothes again, which were now 
thoroughly soaked, for it was raining hard, and started 
running up and down the shore for circulation. The 
wind was coming'up and I waited anxiously for my 
companions to join me. Finally they came into view 
rounding a low island down stream, but to my dis- 
gust on the same side of the stream as before, I beck- 
oned them to come over where I had made it, and 
after some demurring and another pnwpow between 
Thui and Johnathan over their everlasting pipps they 
concluded to make the attempt. But they never reached 
the other side. They got over as far as before, and were 
some half hour dissiecting the river bottom with their 
poles before they gave me to understand that they should 
not dare to make the attpropt. As I think it over now at 
a later day, I hardly wondpr at their caution and am in- 
clined to be more Ipnient with them than when the thing 
occurred. For the Eskimo, as I have said before, is a "wee 
bit of a man," and with their two heavv packs strapped 
to their heads it would have been a foolhardy thing for 
them to have attempted to reach the bank on which I was 
standing, esppcially when you think that hardly one native 
in 100 knows how to swim. 
"John," I yelled at the top of ray voice, "come on and 
let those black devils go back if they want to." But I 
might as well have tri^d to raise the dead as to make him 
hear across this strpam, which was continually rising and 
making considerable noise on its race to the lower lake, 
I motioned tn him to join mp, but to my dismay he shook 
his head, and with the two natives made for shore. And 
then I did what I have since regretted — I retreated after 
them. For now, looking at the situation after a lapse of 
two monthii, surrounded by all the luxuries of a civilized 
home, I wonder why I could have prevailed upon myself 
to go back when there was game only a mile or two away; 
to have come such a distance, and gone through so much, 
and now to give up the object of the trip when almost 
within my grasp, I know what the opinion of my read- 
ers will be, and cannot blame them, seeing it as they do 
from the position of a looker-on; but I will say that when 
I found myself on the other side, alive and kicking, I 
thanked my lucky stars that I had been permitted to join 
my companions once again. Twice on the way over did 
I lose my foothold and go under; twice was I borne down 
by the current and brought up against a projecting boulder 
down stream. The struggle in that current the last hun- 
dred feet, with all my wet clothing tied in a bundle 
around my neck like a millstone, and still clinging to my 
rifle, was something I never want to go through with 
again. But thanks to a strong constitution and the invalu- 
able experience of a boyhood spent for a good part in and 
about the river of a Vermont village, I got back and into 
my cloth'^s, and following the others labored on to our 
former camping place among the rocks. 
I was none the worse for my ducking, and none of us 
as far as I could see showed any ill effects from our five 
hours in the river except Johnathan. I found him, much 
to my surprise,. shaking as though with the palsy, and his 
teeth chattering like castanets. Oat of the pack he car- 
ried I got a suit of dry underwear and gave it to him, 
sleeping myself that night in wet clothing, and a dis- 
agreeable night it was. 
As luck would have it, the temperature fell during the 
night to freezing, and the wind, coming from the east, 
ppnetrated into our rocky cells, chilling us to the bone. 
We were up several times during the night exercising to 
keep warm, and longing for daylight and the sun. 
It came at 6 o'clock, bursting through the clouds, and 
stayed with us just two hours, which was enough for us 
to think that life was still worth living. We managed 
with perseverance to make a fire sufficiently hot to cook 
coffee, and then after eating the last of the beans and bis- 
cuit, tightening our belts and adjusting the loads, we 
started for Ekaluit, fully twenty miles away. I will not 
bore you with the details of that tramp. Starting in fair 
spirits — for we took the bitter medicine of the day before 
with a hunter's philosophy — our little cavalcade pushed on 
through snow, rain and fog for twenty hours; not daring 
to stop on account of the cold, and continually hounded 
by the thought that the nearest food was only at the tent. 
Thui had told us that morning that he should try a differ- 
ent route home, a cross cut, and said it was only three 
miles. Now an Eskimo mile is a Danish mile, and equiv- 
alent to four English miles; but as we tramped on that 
day and the n? xt ni^ht and the following morning, over 
lowlands, up the cliffs, across the ice cap among the in- 
fluence of the glaciers, and finally down the other side, 
putting mile after mile behind us, I am sure we covered 
about double that distance before reaching our destina- 
tion. 
And all over the most detestable kind of walking. I 
don't mind thirty miles on one of the turnpikes out of 
Boston; but over huge erratics and across an ice cap 
which satisfied all the conditions, on a miniature scale, 
found in crossing the great island of Greenland itself, with 
our feet shod as they were, the last half of the distance 
amounted to nothing less than slow, long drawn out 
torture. 
As we ascended the cliffs overlooking the lakes we 
halted for a moment and took in at a glance the scene 
below us, which had even now a wonderful fascination. 
It seemed to me as though nowhere else on the face of 
the earth could there be such scenery, such savageness to 
those chains of mountains with the ice streams glinting 
and clinging to their sides, such unearthly hues to the 
lowlands and lakes themselves, and all shrouded in a 
stillness that was oppressive. Then we tiimed and 
